BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. — Lynn Krieger, whose relationship with The Doors guitarist Robby Krieger became part of the band’s songwriting history, has died at 79, TMZ reported Saturday.
The outlet, citing sources with direct knowledge, said she died in her sleep Thursday, October 29, after a long illness. It said an official cause of death was not known.
Lynn’s place in The Doors’ history extended beyond her marriage to its guitarist. Robby identified her as the inspiration for “Love Her Madly,” linking a private relationship to a song that reached listeners through the band’s L.A. Woman album.
According to TMZ’s original report, Lynn met Robby and the other members of The Doors at a New York City nightclub in 1967. The couple married in 1972 and had one child together, a son named Waylon.
Robby discussed the connection between Lynn and “Love Her Madly” in an interview first published in August 2011 and republished in January 2024. He told music journalist Max Bell, “I wrote it about Lynn, now my wife.”
He recalled developing the song while strumming a newly purchased 12-string guitar, then bringing it to the band’s workshop. His account described a composition shaped by the other musicians as well: Ray Manzarek added keyboards, John Densmore contributed the rhythm, and Jim Morrison sang it.
The song became the first single from L.A. Woman in 1971. Robby’s recollection placed a relationship outside the recording studio at the center of a familiar recording, rather than treating Lynn solely as a name attached to a musician’s biography.
A separate 2021 interview about his memoir, Set the Night on Fire, offered another glimpse of their life together. Recalling their relationship, Robby said, “She’s still with me.” Those words were spoken years before the current death report, not as a response to it.
In that same interview, he described making music with Waylon, who had performed in his band and become its frontman. The recollection extended the family’s connection to music beyond the original Doors recordings, into a father-and-son collaboration.
The account of Lynn’s death rests on TMZ’s unnamed sources. Neither the nature of her illness nor an official cause of death was identified in its report.
